Transcription

Hi everyone welcome or welcome back to the Royal Spectrum Podcast! I'm your host Sarah and before we get into our topics today I wanted to thank everyone for the overwhelming support and kind messages that I've received. Ethan (my wonderful fiance) and I have had a lot of fun going through and reading everyone's kind feedback. 

It's been incredible hearing from people around the world. I got messages from Germany, Britain, India, Australia, and Austria. So again thank you from the bottom of my heart for hearing me out and wanting to learn from me. Your feedback will always mean a lot. Also a quick reminder that my website RoyalSpectrum.Org is always available for transcriptions of every episode and definitions of words that I use. So, let's get into it. 

Education is one of the best ways to eliminate extreme poverty. Increasing access to education can lead to stronger economies, reduced inequalities, and even spark climate action, but unfortunately our education system leaves people a part of the neurodiverse and disabled community behind. Most disabled or neurodiverse students drop out before they can finish their education. 

The National Center for Education Statistics estimated that in the U.S , 20% of ninth graders with autism and  21% with  (ADHD), who completed high school in 2013, enrolled in a four-year public university. So why is it only 20% of autistics and 21% of people with ADHD going for that higher education? For starters, I.E.P’s stop at the age 21. The average age of students in college are “26.4”. The need for accommodations doesn’t just disappear once you hit a certain age. 

There is no such thing as “weaning a person off an accommodation”. I believe that that is a big anxiety for people considering going to college. The fear of not being legally protected and having your accommodations be taken as a suggestion. 

One thing I would have benefited from in my school experience is knowing my rights. Once something is on your IEP, it's against the law to not follow it. There is no such thing as a teacher who is not “accomodation friendly.” There is only a teacher who is in direct violation of the Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act aka the federal special education law.  Implementing accommodations listed on a students 504 plan or IEP is not a personal choice. It's a legal mandate. It's a teacher's job.

   I really wished I would've known this when I was younger because outside of my middle school experience, I was always met with resistance to my education and my accommodations. Sadly from then to now I saw first hand, working at an afterschool program in my adulthood, I saw children face the same problems and resistance I faced. 

I almost never received equal education in my school system because I was placed in “special education” classrooms. The problem with the term “special education” is that phrase gives systems fuel to continue to segregate. The goal is to be equal, not lesser, not greater. You can have special and wonderful people. Their disability or neurodiversity shouldn't determine their worth or treatment with different systems in place. My middle school Chime did a fantastic job of not segregating students by ability, to give everyone a chance to receive equal education. The teachers were trained and equipped to teach all students. 

I know a lot of people that would say that their middle school was the worst time in their life. Believe me I understand, but I had a very different experience. I for once was treated like an equal and not looked down on for being different. I met my best friend in the entire world, Analisa, there. She's gonna be so embarrassed when she listens to this but I don't care. She has changed my life. I finally felt accepted and loved for who I am. I was able to experience what it was like having a friend. Growing up I would eat lunch alone. I was bullied relentlessly and targeted to the point I never thought I would have a friend. She proved me wrong. She proved little Sarah wrong. I finally didn’t have to eat lunch alone. Ana is the person I can call for anything. She has always believed in me and I've always believed in her. She taught me healthy love. Ana is extraordinary in every way shape and form. She often says Chime is the reason she has become who she is today and it's so true, it’s so true. 

Chime was the reason I was able to experience what it was like having a friend because they believe in teaching students all in the same place. I believe everything is taught in the classroom. From how to treat people, to not look down upon students in an ableist way. To understand and learn about different cultures. To show what the world actually looks like.  When you have different walks of life in one place you begin to understand that despite your differences, you're all here. That you’re all human, and everyone deserves to be treated equally and fairly. 

But unfortunately not everyone views it like that. A lot of people don't view us as capable of following a curriculum. They couldn't be more wrong. We need people to meet us where we’re at. We need accommodations, not different education. That's why we have IEP’s and 504’s, to hopefully be in the same classroom and get the same opportunities as everyone else. 

Statistically you will encounter neurodiverse or disabled students in your classroom. Diagnosed or not. Autism alone in the United States rose to 1 in 44 children being diagnosed in 2018.  Keep in mind that number is not accurate. We have a huge bias in the medical field that prevents people from being diagnosed. I’ll be covering these issues more in depth next episode but for this episode I will give you an overview. The medical bias against women, POC, and the economically disadvantaged skew the number of diagnosed autistics greatly. With that knowledge, I would wager that the number of autistic people in the US is at least double of the CDC’s most recent statistic given such big biases in the diagnosing process. 

But let’s humor the CDC’s number, 1 in 44 kids in the US is around 7,599,198 people diagnosed with autism. That number is more than the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, DC, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Montana combined. That’s a lot of peoples’ education to leave behind, especially when that number is way lower than the actual population of autistic kids diagnosed and undiagnosed. This doesn’t even include the rest of neurodiversity and other disabilities. This affects more people than you know. This is a really big issue. Which is why we have to understand the accommodations in place and respect them. 

On my website I'm going to have a list of questions to ask your child to make sure that their accommodations in school are being met. Also I’m going to have some ideas for your IEP goals for students that need movement, that were inspired by the @theexpertally on Instagram. It's so important to get your information from multiple sources that have first hand experiences. I highly recommend accounts like @autismsketches @neurodivergentactivist  and @neurodivergent_lou . These are all incredible resources and have amazing content. 

We’re going to be getting into more of a serious topic here. But before I go I wanted to talk about the LGBTQ community. 70% of autistics identify as queer. I identify as bisexual. When we continue to fight for queer and trans people, we fight for autistics, and vice versa. 

State lawmakers have proposed at least 238 discriminatory bills targeting the LGBTQ students, athletes and curricula in the first three months of 2022, compared with 41 for the year in 2018, this is according to an analysis by NBC News based on data from the advocacy group Freedom for All Americans and the American Civil Liberties Union. 

I know that these are scary and uncertain times and I want you to know if you are a part of the LGBTQ community, you are loved, you are wanted, you are supported in being you, Royal Spectrum will always be a safe space, and I will do my damndest to make sure that we have equality for all.

Thank you to everyone for listening to Royal Spectrum Episode 2! A huge thank you to Ethan Walsh who has helped me look through all of the information for this episode. I really could not do this without you, I love you so much. So until Episode 3, bye for now!